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Virtual Dog-Walking Arcade Game

This is me playing the dog walking game. This is arguably the most challenging arcade game I have ever played. Much more so than Beatmania or DDR (j/k, I so don’t play DDR) or Street Fighter II. Basically you have to walk on a treadmill while holding this white dog’s leash. Walk too fast, and he’ll get tired. Walk too slow, and he’ll get bored. And when obstacles like the neighborhood bully dog or a oncoming car shows up on the screen, you better steer clear! If you mess up, your dog dies.

I think my dog died in the first few minutes of me playing. In real life, however, I have a healthy 4 year old dog that I have no problem walking. So while this was fun (well, stressful) to play, I wouldn’t say it’s very realistic.

I love this concept: DDR meets dog walking: Basically you have to walk on a treadmill while holding this white dog’s leash. Walk too fast, and he’ll get tired. Walk too slow, and he’ll get bored. And when obstacles…

Apparently there’s a virtual dog-walking arcade game in Japan where you, uh, walk on a treadmill and pretend to walk a dog. Sounds almost as awesome as my virtual getting-raped-by-a-giant-tentacle-monster arcade game. They’re both huge hits in Japan, …

As a cat lover, I’d love to see a cat game where me and my cat could go on awesome adventures. Imagine holding a Gundam Beam Rifle lightgun in one hand, while walking a cat on the other. Does it make sense to walk a cat? NO! But who cares?
Basically you’d shoot Zakus with the Beam Rifle, while your cat can bite out the robo jugulars of enemies too. That’d rock!!!

The Japanese are a creative, innovative race. But sometimes I question the ways they try to fill their empty, pet-hungry souls. With successes like Nintendogs and Tamagochis, now there is an arcade game in Japan where you can almost…

I am also the founder of The Tofu Project, a boutique program that helps Japanese entrepreneurs and creators think deeper, tell better stories, and go out into the world in a much bigger way. We work with companies like Mixi, Japan Airlines, and Salesforce.com.

Sometimes I try to explain Japanese culture on CNN, BBC, CBC, WSJ, ABC (so many acronyms!) or in person at places like the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, ETech, and Ignite!